Amrita university launches e-learning tool for CBSE schools

New Delhi, February 26: Amrita University has opened an interactive facility under the supervision of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), aiding students and teachers with video conferencing and sharing of content besides assessment material in online training.

Center of Excellence for Teachers (COEFT) at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh will provide the facility using the A-VIEW (Amrita Virtual Interactive E-Learning World) platform.

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Dr. Pallam Raju inaugurated the online easy-to-use tool which has been developed by the multi-campus Amrita University incepted in 2003.

The A-VIEW, which is funded by the Ministry of HRD, is currently deployed at over 3,500 colleges and 450 universities across India.

Demonstrating the use of A-VIEW platform, the minister interacted online from the port town of Kakinada with Dr Sadhana Parashar, who is the director of the 1921-founded CBSE, at another center in Gurgaon off Delhi upcountry.

At the function, Mr R Bhattacharya, Secretary to the Department of Schools under the Ministry of HRD, stressed the need for improving the quality of education. "This facility is also provided for the teachers to clarify doubts after completion of their training by consulting any of the COEFT centers," he added.

Mr Vineet Joshi, Chairman for CBSE schools, explained the ways of operation of the training process.

"For a particular subject or course, one expert teacher from the Center of Excellence would provide online training using A-VIEW to a large number of teachers in many other centers and schools," he revealed. "Each course is recorded, and teachers can ask doubts during the online class."

The A-VIEW of the university headquartered in Ettimadai off Coimbatore would be used by an increasingly large number of teachers in schools all over India.

The launch of the facility saw the conduct of sessions using A-VIEW from the Kakinada COEFT to several schools. Ms D Usha Reddy (Principal, Meridian Group of Schools) and Ms Sarita Manuja (Director, Center of Assesment and Evaluation and Research) were the first expert trainers for this novel initiative.